DOI issue:
Faculty of archeology, history and letters
DOI article:Mann, Horace K.: The portraits of the popes
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70028#0197
The Portraits of the Popes.
i77
As in a paper of this sort it is impossible to deal with all the existing
portraits of the Popes before Martin V., we purpose to continue the
treatment of them as we have begun it, viz., to treat of them in sections.
With this end in view we would divide the Popes from St. Peter to
Martin V. into seven groups. The first group includes the Pontiffs
from St. Peter to the predecessor of Sylvester I. (a.d. 29-314) who lived
during the days of persecution, and who may be called the Popes of the
Catacombs.
From 314 to 410 (Innocent I. 402-17) we have a period when the
Church was in the main free from violent persecution from without, and
when the Roman Empire had a fair share of tranquility within its borders.
During this period flourished the Popes of the Great Peace as we may
call them.
The melancholy years from 410, in which occurred the sack of Rome
by Alaric the Goth, to 522 when, in the pontificate of Pope Hormisdas,
Rome was recovered from the Goths by Narses, the great general from
Byzantium, were the days of the agony and passing of old Rome, days
anything but favourable to the practice of art.
The three hundred and sixty years from 522 to 882 when John VIII.
died, witnessed the birth of the new Rome of the Popes, and in politics
and in art the growth of Byzantine influence intioduced by the generals
of Justinian.
From the death of John VIII. (882) to the accession of the German
Pope Clement (1046), the city went through a period of anarchy. It
was Christian Rome’s darkest night. The centuries from 1046-1305
(the accession of Clement V.) saw the first Roman artistic Renaissance.
They were the flower of the Middle Ages, and in Roman Art they were
the centuries of the Marmorarii.
Finally, the fourteenth century (1305-1417, the election of
Martin V.) was a period of war and plague, a period of general decay
all over Europe. It was the age of the residence of the Popes at
Avignon—-the age of the so-called Babylonian Captivity, and the age of
the Great Western Schism. It was a time when Rome nearly went to
complete decay ; and yet, as we shall see, for the purposes of this paper,
it was an important period as it witnessed a great revival in interest in
portraits.
N
Division of
the line of
the Popes
into Sections
for the study
of their
Portraits
i77
As in a paper of this sort it is impossible to deal with all the existing
portraits of the Popes before Martin V., we purpose to continue the
treatment of them as we have begun it, viz., to treat of them in sections.
With this end in view we would divide the Popes from St. Peter to
Martin V. into seven groups. The first group includes the Pontiffs
from St. Peter to the predecessor of Sylvester I. (a.d. 29-314) who lived
during the days of persecution, and who may be called the Popes of the
Catacombs.
From 314 to 410 (Innocent I. 402-17) we have a period when the
Church was in the main free from violent persecution from without, and
when the Roman Empire had a fair share of tranquility within its borders.
During this period flourished the Popes of the Great Peace as we may
call them.
The melancholy years from 410, in which occurred the sack of Rome
by Alaric the Goth, to 522 when, in the pontificate of Pope Hormisdas,
Rome was recovered from the Goths by Narses, the great general from
Byzantium, were the days of the agony and passing of old Rome, days
anything but favourable to the practice of art.
The three hundred and sixty years from 522 to 882 when John VIII.
died, witnessed the birth of the new Rome of the Popes, and in politics
and in art the growth of Byzantine influence intioduced by the generals
of Justinian.
From the death of John VIII. (882) to the accession of the German
Pope Clement (1046), the city went through a period of anarchy. It
was Christian Rome’s darkest night. The centuries from 1046-1305
(the accession of Clement V.) saw the first Roman artistic Renaissance.
They were the flower of the Middle Ages, and in Roman Art they were
the centuries of the Marmorarii.
Finally, the fourteenth century (1305-1417, the election of
Martin V.) was a period of war and plague, a period of general decay
all over Europe. It was the age of the residence of the Popes at
Avignon—-the age of the so-called Babylonian Captivity, and the age of
the Great Western Schism. It was a time when Rome nearly went to
complete decay ; and yet, as we shall see, for the purposes of this paper,
it was an important period as it witnessed a great revival in interest in
portraits.
N
Division of
the line of
the Popes
into Sections
for the study
of their
Portraits